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Collect / Diffuse

Collect / Diffuse uses extended field recording techniques to explore and respond to the diverse sounds of Linz. Drawing on recordings made by Tim Shaw during his two week residency at bb15, the exhibition examines the relationship between acoustic and recorded sound through a variety of listening technologies.

Three speakers, with directional microphones placed in front of them, play back the striking of bells found in Linz city centre. Specially made software records the sound of the bells, as well as ambient sounds occurring in the room, to the memory of the computer and then sends them to remote servers in the USA, Iceland and India. The sounds then return to the gallery space and are played back at the time they took to travel around the world and back. Traditionally bells have created sound-marks within landscapes, defining time and space with regular reminders. This work imagines what a global bell might sound like.

Two hydrophones, underwater microphones, are used to amplify the tiny aquatic sounds in two bowls of diluted holy water, gathered from churches around Linz.

A handheld cassette tape player and siren speaker, purchased from the Megaflohmarkt in Linz, are assembled to playback a recording of the civic protection alarm which can be heard ever Saturday at 12 noon across Austria. The cassette tape has been manipulated to create an infinite loop, the three tapes hold repetitions of the ascending, sustained and decending alarm. A siren in three movements.

Other recorded sounds include church bells, bridges, thunder, the depths of the Danube, trams and bikes processed through an ever changing granular synthesiser. These are supported by sounds from radios, electromagnetic receivers and an analogue synthesiser.

Thanks to bb15 for inviting me to be a part of their international residency programme.